If you are interested in setting up an African cichlid aquarium,
chances are this is not your first fish tank and you are familiar
with performing water changes in a tropical aquarium. Changing
the water in an African cichlid aquarium is slightly different than
changing water in your typical tropical aquarium because you must
not only keep the water de-chlorinated and the proper temperature,
you must also keep the aquarium's water hardness and pH at the
proper place; which is likely different than your tap water.
Another difference is that you may also be going from a 10 gallon
tank to a 55 gallon tank. Also, since cichlids are notorious
for digging in the substrate, you must keep more substrate in the
bottom of your aquarium (4 inches of crushed coral works well).
Crushed coral is a common substrate in African cichlid aquariums
because it helps to maintain the water hardness.
In this description, I will assume you have a 55 gallon aquarium.
When setting up your aquarium it is best to take a marker and mark
10 gallon lines on a back corner of your tank. Start at your
fill line an inch or two below the very top of the tank and mark
where the water line will be when you have removed 10, 20 and 30
gallons. This will let you know how much dechlorinator and
cichlid salts to add back to your aquarium when refilling it after a
cleaning.
Before starting to clean your aquarium, refill your aquarium to
its full line and allow the salt concentration to equilibrate for 10
or 15 minutes. Your water has most likely evaporated some from
its full mark and the salt concentration is now slightly higher than
when it was last filled. The reason refilling prior to a water
change is so important is because you want to remove the same
proportion of salt from the aquarium as you do water. If you
remove 50% of the water, you want to remove 50% of the salt.
If done in this manner, you do not have to test your water after
each water change and adjust the hardness and pH every time.
You will have removed a known quantity of water and salts and can
easily re-add the same amounts.
When removing the dirty water from your cichlid aquarium, it is best
to use a gravel vacuum (pictured to the left) to clean the thick
substrate, which will hold a lot of waste. These gravel vacs
have an attachment that allows you to hook it to a faucet and suck
the waste tank water into your sink and down the drain. If you
are not able to hook it to your faucet, you can also use these
gravel vacuums like a siphon and drain them into a large container
or outdoors.
Once you have your vacuum functioning,
push the wide mouth into the gravel and lift up a few inches and
allow the substrate to fall back out while the detritus is sucked up
and removed from the fish tank. Repeat this all over the
bottom of your aquarium. By the time you are done vacuuming
the gravel in a 55 gallon tank you will have removed somewhere
between 25 and 50% of the water. Continue removing water until
you are at one of your 10 gallon lines or approximately halfway in
between them.
Once all of the dirty water has been
drained from your vacuum line, you will now use it to refill your
aquarium. Adjust the faucet fitting so that the water is
running down the sink and get your water temperature set to around
80° F and start refilling your aquarium. For this example,
lets say you have removed 25 gallons from a FULL 55 gallon aquarium.
Once the water start flowing back into the aquarium, add enough
dechlorinator for 55 gallons. The dechorinator that I use
requires 1 tablespoon per 25 gallons, so I sprinkle one tablespoon
on each end of the cichlid aquarium. Next add enough cichlid
salt for 10 gallons. As the water fills up to your next 10
gallon line, add one more dose of cichlid salts for those 10 gallons
and repeat with a half a dose as the last 5 gallons fills up.
The first few times you do a water change in your new African
cichlid aquarium, check its hardness and pH to make sure you are
within the acceptable range for the cichlids you keep. After
you are confident that you are getting the same water conditions
after each water change, you can reduce how often you check it.
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